4 May 2012, 10.05AM
Everytime we decide on national issues, we bring in the "experts" who calculate the most miniscule statistic to support their theory. When it comes to population, we need to realise that we are not dealing with statistics but human beings, singaporeans with emotions, feelings who can feel stress like living creatures.
For example in yesterday's discussions on population and immigration growth:
Noting that there is 60 per cent built-up land and 40 per cent green field land, Centre for Sustainable Asian Cities director Malone-Lee Lai Choo felt that there is room to increase built-up land to 70 per cent and for the population to grow to 6.5 million. "There is some potential to continue to look at land balance, but with a limit to it," said Dr Malone-Lee. Currently, Singapore's built up land has a net density of 12,400 persons per square km. Net density in Hong Kong, she noted, is 26,000 persons per sq km.
Dr Malone-Lee obviously has failed to take into account the fact that HKers have the new territories to go hike on weekends and escape their dense prison. What does Singapore have? nature walkpaths in the air? also, we need to consider how much of the green field land is assessible to singaporeans? most of it is land reserved for golfing and military uses compared to HK's green field. if we use HK's real density, it is half that of Singapore - *****ed lies and statistics used to further their theories.
Such theorists are no doubt well meaning but totally out of their depth when thinking of the practicalities of their words. IPO and PMO are research houses and have no experience with dealing with human beings. Their theoretical models do not tell us how humans react to one another in a stressful confined space.
i leave you with the words of an economist, Yeoh Lam Keong at the seminar which I thought summed up what i thought of the the current situation:
Economist Yeoh Lam Keong asked if Singapore really needed to keep growing its labour force at a high rate, and suggested that Singapore accept a lower economic growth rate in the long term, like other developed countries. "What is wrong with growing up and accepting lower economic growth like a developed country?"
What is wrong indeed?